Boxer plays abortion card

LOS ANGELES — Sen. Barbara Boxer returned on Thursday to a tried and tested campaign strategy by painting her opponent as an extreme anti-abortion conservative who is out of touch with California voters.

The three-term Democrat used a rally at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel to claim that GOP nominee Carly Fiorina would become a sure Senate vote to overturn Roe v. Wade.

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"Make no mistake about it," Boxer said alongside actresses Maria Bello, Amy Brenneman and Alfre Woodard, and Reps. Jane Harman, Diane Watson and Laura Richardson. "A woman's right to choose is on the ballot here in California this year. It's very stark. Barbara Boxer, pro-choice, versus Carly Fiorina, anti-choice. It's very clear and very important people know this."

Boxer has hammered away at Fiorina's stance on abortion during other campaign events and their two previous debates. But California election observers say she's also been holding back a bit by featuring other lines of attack in her high-priced TV commercials.

That strategy contrasts with her three previous campaigns for the Senate, where she’s found success against other conservative Republicans who view abortion similarly to Fiorina.

"Barbara Boxer is a very talented politician, but her single greatest skill is running against pro-life opponents," said one California Republican political analyst. "She's really good at it. Matt Fong [her GOP nominee in 1998] didn't even know he was pro-life until Barbara Boxer got through with him."

Boxer wouldn’t say how much the abortion issue would make its way into advertisements during the closing three weeks of the campaign, where she clings to a single-digit lead in a number of recent polls after running in a dead heat for much of the summer.

"Sit and watch and wait," Boxer said. "We never say what we're going to do. But I can say the ads we've launched have been very effective."

Fiorina has tried to distance herself from some of the comments she made on abortion during a tough GOP primary clash that took a clear conservative tilt. In January, she told a California radio station she would "absolutely vote to overturn Roe v. Wade if the opportunity presented itself.”

Now running in the general election, where moderate suburban voters are critical for a Republican to win statewide, the former CEO of Hewlett Packard has taken a more nuanced stance. Fiorina says she doesn't support its criminalization in any instance and wouldn't use the issue as a litmus test when deciding her vote on a potential U.S. Supreme Court nominee.

"Well, I personally am pro-life," Fiorina said Monday on CNN's Situation Room. "And I know that not all women agree with me. But it is Barbara Boxer who is extreme in her views here. She supports partial-birth abortion. She says that babies don't have rights until they leave hospitals."

Fiorina added she doesn’t believe voters care about social issues this year.

“What's on voters' minds is jobs,” she said. “Where are they? We have a 12.4 percent unemployment rate here in California."

Pro-life advocates have chimed in on Fiorina’s behalf in California. The Susan B. Anthony List and National Organization for Marriage are teaming up to run TV ads in the state aimed at Hispanic voters. And the National Right to Life group has spent about $178,000 on campaign fliers.

Those groups and other prominent national conservatives, from Karl Rove to Grover Norquist, played a big role in the message Boxer’s allies tried to send on Thursday.

"If Sen. Boxer's opponent wins, it'll be like having Sarah Palin representing California in the United States Senate," said NARAL Pro-Choice America President Nancy Keenan.